


Interesting Times

by StorytellerSecrets



Series: Secret Santa Gift(s) for @indecisive-in-every-way/@din-dameron [1]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Bad Writing, Blizzards & Snowstorms, CT-5285 | Tup Is Baby, Dialogue Is A Joke, Gen, Random & Short, Snowed In, Where is Rex? I do not know, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:14:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28275144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StorytellerSecrets/pseuds/StorytellerSecrets
Summary: "Never Have I Ever eaten an entire bag of donuts for a TikTok," Anakin says cheerfully after the last three rounds have left him in a desperate state of near-fingerlessness. He's surprisingly invested for a sleepover game with a bunch of strangers in an airport, but if there's any leverage hedoeshave it's about his sister."Do you even know what TikTokis?" Ahsoka grumbles as she puts a finger down."Wait," the man with five separate bags, Fives, asks, interrupting with a more pressing question. "Donuts come in a bag?"-The the official Secret Santa gift for @indecisive-in-every-way/@din-dameronTheme: winter or in-universeRequest: 501st, Anakin, Ahsoka, Obi-Wan. Also open to x reader fics for any of them if fanfiction.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, CT-21-0408 | CT-1409 | Echo & CT-27-5555 | ARC-5555 | Fives, CT-5597 | Jesse & CT-6116 | Kix
Series: Secret Santa Gift(s) for @indecisive-in-every-way/@din-dameron [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2071422
Comments: 7
Kudos: 45
Collections: Echo&Fives, Kix/Jesse, Star Wars Secret Santa 2020





	Interesting Times

**Author's Note:**

> this story just . . . did not want to end, just to go on for forever into the void

"Never Have I Ever eaten an entire bag of donuts for a TikTok," Anakin says cheerfully after the last three rounds have left him in a desperate state of near-fingerlessness. He's surprisingly invested for a sleepover game with a bunch of strangers in an airport, but if there's any leverage he _does_ have it's about his sister.

  


"Do you even know what TikTok _is_?" Ahsoka grumbles as she puts a finger down.

  


"Wait," the man with five separate bags, Fives, asks, interrupting with a more pressing question. "Donuts come in a bag?"

  


"I know what TikTok is," Anakin replies defensively, folding his arms in front of him. From Ahsoka's unimpressed look, she can tell he's lying.

  


"No, no, donut _holes_ come in a bag," Hardcase explains from the floor, sitting opposite to the three who are also floor-bound. His suitcase had smashed against Anakin's knee and left an already-purpling bruise, thus leading to the man's name. "Do _nuts_ come in a box."

  


Sitting above Fives on a seat, Echo frowns. "Donuts don't come in a _box_ ," he says, affronted. Echo, who was apparently called Echo in enough situations he actually responded to it, repeated nearly everything the airlines had said over the intercoms.

  


Jesse, who had one of the three names Anakin actually remembered from the initial introductions (the other two being Ahsoka's and his own), grins from Echo's opposite seat that is above Hardcase. "Yeah, they come in a can," he says, because he seems to like it when people hate him. Without looking up from his phone, a man to Jesse's left kicks him in the shin.

  


Kicks? Shinner? No. Anakin will have to think on it.

  


"Whose turn is it?" Ahsoka asks before Jesse can say something more emotionally scarring, and the answer is the quiet kid with the braid on Jesse's other side who awkwardly raises a hand.

  


"Never Have I Ever—" he starts but the loudspeakers beep before an indecipherable voice blares and cuts him off. It drones for a while before the speakers beep and turn off, and everyone takes a collective sigh in relief. The voice is _loud_ even if it isn't anywhere near coherent.

  


Without even having to ask, Echo starts rambling off a copy of the words. " . . . stay in your assigned areas to decrease the likelihood of losing your luggage. Remember: any unaccompanied baggage will be removed and disposed of by airport security immediately. If our offices are busy, try calling our mobile help desk. We are currently working at overfull capacity. Please remain calm as the roads are cleared as fast as possible. Weather reports are available at all operating televisions . . . "

  


"Jeez, Echo, where'd you _learn_ that?" Anakin asks, impressed. He could never hear even half of what people said through speakers and could remember even less of it, let alone copy it back verbatim.

  


Echo shrugs. "I've always been good at it," he admits, legs knocking into Five's back as he shifts in his seat.

  


Fives grins and raises his eyebrows suggestively, taking notes from Jesse, "Well, one day he met some _very_ special ladies that showed him—"

  


"Fives!" Echo says, and Anakin is thrilled at least some of them have decided to use his names for them. "There are _kids here._ "

  


Jesse snorts. "Like who, the girl?" he asks wryly.

  


Without seeming to hear the conversation, the man beside him reflexively kicks at Jesse's legs. Kicker? Violent Guy? No. "Be nice," is all the man says, not bothering to look up from his phone. Jesse hums noncommittally.

  


The kid next to Jesse apparently doesn't count, though he's more of an older teenager than anything else. Still, Anakin's relatively certain he's younger than Ahsoka by more than a few years.

  


"I'm _nineteen_ ," Ahsoka growls.

  


"What'd you say my name was?" Hardcase leans forwards and whispers the question at Anakin, nodding when Anakin tells him.

  


"Hi, Nineteen," Hardcase says to Ahsoka gleefully, "I'm Hardcase."

  


"I’m going to eat your eyes for breakfast," Ahsoka glowers, hands clenching as she trails off with murder in her eyes. Hardcase shrugs unconcernedly before his head snaps up.

  


"The game!" he cries. "Whose turn was it?"

  


Anakin frowns. " . . . Jesse's?" he guesses, picking wildly from the group.

  


"Sure," Jesse accepts and says immediately, "Never Have I Ever forgotten everyone in the group's name. Anakin, thinking he's very carefully in the clear, sighs, but Jesse tacks on an "except for mine" and Anakin groans. His only respite is watching the regular kicking of Jesse's legs.

  


"I remember Ahsoka's name?" he tries.

  


"She's your _sister_ ," Fives refutes with a shake of his head.

  


Anakin puts another finger down.

  


"Fine, Never Have I Ever gotten stuck at an airport and tried to gang up on me," he accuses.

  


"It's not even your turn," Hardcase laughs. "I'll go. Never Have I Ever killed someone," he says with a dramatic eyebrow wiggle.

  


Everyone glances at each other, not really anticipating when Echo puts a finger down. He's down to three now, seconded only to Anakin's two. Debatably more concerning, however, is his admission to murder.

  


"You _what_?" Jesse asks, thrilled. "What'd they do, put donuts in a box?"

  


Echo wrinkles his nose. "Disgusting," he spits before shaking his head, "I ate our triplet in the womb," he corrects sweetly and Jesse cackles.

  


His shins, immediately, are kicked. Jesse doesn't even seem bothered by it. (Anakin really needs to find a name for the man who's doing it. Phone Guy? Kickster?)

  


"You're twins?" Anakin asks, starting to see the obvious relation between Echo and Fives. Their jaws are the same angles, eyelids slanted with identical hoods. Kark, even their bags are the same color, though Fives' are far more numerous. Echo only has two.

  


"No," Fives denies automatically, "identical cousins."

  


The kid next to Jesse laughs. "Is that even possible?" he asks, teenage curiosity unburdened by the harsh realities of life. He reminds Anakin of a puppy, with his wild curls and big dark eyes. There's a tupperware bowl of noodles in his lap that he must've pulled out recently, a fork twisted in the pasta. Anakin is ready to wrap him in a blanket and teach him cool tricks. 

  


Tupperware . . .

  


"Your name is Tup," Anakin tells him nodding. Tup looks at him, confused, but doesn’t bother to clarify and thus accepts his new name.

  


Fives grins. "Yeah, because if two identical twins married identical twins, their kids would be genetically identical," he says.

  


"I don't think that's how genetics work," Ahsoka says, but can't seem to find the right words to explain why, "It's just . . . not."

  


Jesse has a thoughtful look on his face. He turns to the man that's been kicking him. "Kicks. Kicks, I know you're reading a doctor article on your phone, my brother reads the same ones. Could identical cousins happen?"

  


Jesse has taken it upon himself to name his assailant. Anakin is so proud. Is this what a father feels like?

  


Kicks stares at his phone, unperturbed, but answers after a long moment. It's the first time Anakin has heard him speak. "Theoretically, but statistically no."

  


"Why?" Echo asks as though his entire worldview has the potential of shattering.

  


"Genetic variation," is all Kicks says. Echo lets out a curse.

  


"I don't know what that means," Fives says honestly. Hardcase nods in agreement, and Anakin does much the same. Most of the group, it seems, were not born to be brilliant.

  


Echo looks up and, gravely, says, "It means we were wrong." Then, to soften the blow, "They _would_ be siblings, though."

  


"Cool," Hardcase says, because it doesn't matter to them either way. Fives, who it _does_ seem to matter to, doesn't look particularly comforted.

  


“I have been shook,” he says. “Shaken to my core. Absolutely _shooketh._ ”

  


A pause and Kicks lets out a long breath, still looking at his phone. "If we’re calling me 'Kicks,'" he starts, air quotes audible, "then it better be with an X."

  


"X-icks?" Anakin tries and then slaps his head. " _Oooh_. Kix, nevermind, I get it."

  


"Alright, _Kix_ ," Jesse says. Kix goes for his shins before he can say anything else.

  


"Great," Kix says flatly. "The blizzard's settled. Roads are clearing up. We'll be out of here soon."

  


Until then, though, they’re going to have an interesting time.

  


Anakin grins. "Okay, so. Never Have I Ever kissed a girl," he says, and Ahsoka drops her face into her hands.

  


Fives frowns. "Wait, aren't you married?"

  


“...Maybe?” Anakin asks, furiously red. There's a collective chuckle around the room.

  


"Did you just _forget_ that you were _married_?" Hardcase asks, delighted.

  


"No," Anakin lies, staring at the ceiling to hide his shame.

  


Fives leans forward from the edge of his seat. “Come on, you totally did.”

  


“You so did,” Ahsoka says with a grin. “I’m telling Padme.”

  


“Oh, husband’s in _trouble_ ,” Jesse taunts, and Kix slams a foot down on his leg.

  


“Alright, _alright_. Knock it off,” Hardcase says, despite being the kind of person who’s never knocked anything off in his life.

  


“Yeah,” Jesse drawls, “wouldn’t want to embarrass the new hubby—kark it, Kix, that hurt!” Holding his wounded leg, Jesse does his best to glare at Kix who stares back unaffected.

  


“Good,” he smiles and goes back to his phone. "Never Have I Ever..."

  


Outside the airport, the blizzard dies. Roads are cleared, and people go to their respective homes. But there, for a moment, eight strangers exist in harmony.

  


Interesting times, indeed.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
